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Youth rally gives teens a
place to ‘get real’ outside church
Joy
Scott
Star Staff
Writer
SHELBY — Electric music vibrates the
white and teal walls. Applause rolls like thunder.
“An
awesome encounter with God,” is how Alicia Turner describes the
feeling she gets when she and other teens worship
together.
The 15-year-old wasn’t in church Saturday night.
She and other teens were “getting real” outside church
walls.
For more than a year now, the Get Real Worship Rally
has been bringing youth of various religious dominations together in
Cleveland County, say its organizers, Greg Sailors and Stephen
Stanford. Christian music intermingled with testimonials, dances and
speakers like local preacher Jamie Pruitt, make up the Get Real
Worship Rally.
But its organizers say the super glue holding
it together is God.
“I was seeing a need for the youth of the
area to have an opportunity to worship in a manner that met their
needs,” said Sailors, recalling when the ministry was a brainstorm.
He was serving as director of the Student and Families Ministries at
his church, Westview Baptist Church in Shelby.
While he and
others were generating ideas for the ministry, Stanford was working
on the same thing in the church he was pastoring at the time, Christ
Covenant North.
The two learned about what each other was
trying to accomplish and decided to combine forces.
That was
in April 2001.
After months of prayer and meetings, the rally
was born in October the same year.
“The name itself says what
we’re trying to accomplish,” said Stanford. “Some don’t know how to
truly worship the Lord.”
The Get Real Worship Rally is under
the umbrella of a ministry called Kingdom of God. Its motto:
“Becoming One Church, Serving One God, Sharing One
Message.”
At the first rally held at the Dover Foundation
YMCA, more than 300 youth showed up, Sailors and Stanford said. The
first season of rallies ended in May 2002.
Because of its
success, they have raised the bar on goals for the second season and
the ministry’s five-year outlook.
This summer they plan a
camp.
Long-term forecasts include a teen center, Christian
school, and a worship group for high school and middle school
students and enhancing the rally by mobilizing it with a
tour.
One hot spot for the rally has been the YMCA.
“I
think what we do best is make church fun for teen-agers,” said Aaron
Byrd, YMCA teen director.
After a rally, he says “You can
expect to leave here rejuvenated in your faith.”
Saturday
night was Jeff Alley’s seventh or eighth time attending the rally.
What keeps the 24-year-old coming back?
“Fun, worship and
just a good interaction with God and the kids,” he said. “It’s a
chance to impact young kids’ lives and be apart of it.”
On
the Web:
www.getrealrally.com.
3586-1/12/2003-LN
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